“It is unacceptable for the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ to participate in the five-party conference”
29 December, 2016Prime Minister Özgürgün travelled to Ankara
30 December, 2016Prime Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün visited Lefke, the sixth District of the TRNC, and made a presentation at the conference titled “Cyprus’s Past, Present and Future”.
In his speech, Özgürgün talked about the loan of Cyprus to Britain, the initiatives to unite Cyprus with Greece, how EOKA and TMT were established and the negotiations continuing today. Özgürgün stated that the Greek Cypriots’ claim that the island has been divided into two parts with arrival of Turkey in 1974 does not reflect the reality as Turkey intervened in Cyprus in 1974 using the right given by the Guarantee Agreement. Özgürgün emphasised that at the talks in Switzerland starting on 9 January 2017, the Greek Cypriot side and Greece will demand the removal of Turkey’s right to intervene. This will cause problems, he noted.
Özgürgün stated that the Annan plan provided for the return of one third of the territory under the control of the Turkish Cypriots to the Greek Cypriots. The Prime Minister noted that the Annan plan was refused by the Greek Cypriots with 75% of the votes since they wanted much more territory, and afterwards, the decision to lift the isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriots was refused at the UN Security Council. Özgürgün also said that the Greek Cypriot side’s accession to the EU is used as an obstacle in Turkey’s EU negotiations.
Furthermore, Özgürgün said that one of the factors which cause problems in Cyprus is the natural gas resources explored offshore in the south. Özgürgün underlined that this is the most important reason for the deadlock of the Cyprus problem.
